JCtx

I thought I had a rat problem, but after using every imaginable kind of trap with no success, decided to revert back to the old days with a simple mechanical trap. When I saw droppings on top of the cheese, for a second thought I was living the sequel of Caddyshack, but with a rat, instead of a gopher. Ha ha. But immediately after that I knew it was impossible, so finally realized it was bats, not rats. But yes, the first thing to eliminate is any food source nearby, and they magically disappear.

okie981

You're gonna need a bigger pair of cats.... Cats will work. Even feral cats will work if you keep some cat food out.

mchrono

it would help if they didn't use soy in the wire insulation:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael.../#1f5a6287780a

Rats! New Cars' Soy-Coated Wires Give Rodents Plenty To Chew On

"Some newer model cars use materials like soy that are more biodegradable than plastics. It's all part of an effort to make car parts more environmentally-friendly."

backeddy

I had a LARGE (bigger than a squirrel) pack rat get into my restaurant in Idaho a few years ago, it shredded EVERYTHING. Exterminator? Nope, did not work...Traps? Nope, it carried one off, glue strips LOL nope! so how do you get rid of a nuisance in the middle of Idaho? A sub-sonic self-loaded 9mm

Suicide Jockey

You guys are scaring the heck out of me. Until just a year ago I had never even heard of rat/mice/vermin issues. Had no idea it could be such a problem.

And what is it about Irish Spring? That's the soap I shower with and now I'm wondering what the hell is in it!

jeanrabelais

Where I live there are feral cats too that the lady next door feeds outside my gate lol BTW place is for sale and I'm moving out of the Kangaroo Rat Zone! So My dogs keep the feral cats at bay though most of the time or at least try. I have an Anatolian Shepherd and a German Shepherd. My Anatolian hunts and eats gophers and probably those special Kangaroo rats too. She is a very special dog indeed. Funny thing is the rat problem is just an indigenous problem specific to the area and has nothing to do with Food or Filth .... it's just nature. Can't fight nature can I?

jeanrabelais

HA HA, Sorry, this is the the only place I can kvetch. This issue has been ruining my life LOL.

Yes I've read about the soy wires too.

jeanrabelais

Laughing and laughing. This is a great place to kvetch.

Tradical

Here in So. California Rats are a constant problem. I have eliminated many over the years. Victors guillotine wire traps baited with cotton, nuts or cheese work well. Tomcat poison blocks are my next go to. The Victors are no joke so be careful when loading the spring. Good luck.

fast1

I live in the country where there are lots of field mice. Never had a problem in the spring or summer, but the mice look for a warm place to live in the winter. Unfortunately I found out that mice love wire insulation. So about 20 years ago I bought D-Con, and haven't had a problem since.

I put a couple boxes of D-Con in my garage in early December and haven't had a problem since. When all the bait is eaten I put our a new box. D-Con baits use an anticoagulant commonly used in pesticides, which inhibits the rodents' abilities to digest food and water, making the rodents become starved and dehydrated after eating enough bait. The good news is that as the mice become dehydrated, they leave the garage to search for water. So unless you have water in your garage, you'll probably never even see the rodent's carcass.

Nurburger

I use these after hearing many positive reviews and have never seen any trace of rodents:

Marine Blue

Wow no kidding, that seems like a recipe for disaster for those of us that intend to hold on to our cars for a long time. I would think that wires will prematurely fail as they get exposed to heat.

Archimedes

There is no rat alive that could survive the heavy duty rat traps I used when I first moved into my last house. They would break your forearm if you got it caught in one. Eliminated all the rats, some really big ones too. Heavy duty spring loaded traps never fail. Best part was I could be anywhere in the house and I'd hear when one went off.

But I wouldn't put them anywhere a kid or a pet could get into them.

mchrono

these work well. Load them up with peanut butter

Yabo

I'm sorry this won't help a ton but it's an interesting story nonetheless, and motivation to take care of it sooner than later.

My mother had a 2012 Volvo XC90, at the time it was just a few years old with <50K miles. My parents live on a farm and she sometimes didn't use it for 1-2 weeks at a time as she had other vehicles.

My dad sees nesting material blowing out the vents one day so he brings it to the dealer to clean out the climate control system. The next day they call to say you better get your insurance involved.

Long story shorter, the Volvo was TOTALED. estimates were over 15K to repair. The mice had made their way through under all the carpets, ceiling, door panels, etc. The dealer said they've had more instances of this since manufacturers started using peanut oil, soy, etc. to mfg wiring and possibly to lubricate for pulling through the car. I have no way to verify that information but at least empirically, none of our other vehicles had ever gotten hit that bad.

Google finds other mechanics stating the same and even some reports that VW, Audi and Porsche all use similar materials. It would be interesting to know if this has changed.